Mortgage interest rates are the single-most important factor determining the borrowing power of a potential house buyer. When rates are very low, a borrower can service a large amount of debt with a relatively small payment, and when interest rates are very high, a borrower can service a small amount of debt with a relatively large payment.
The next big psychological change to impact housing will be a change in homebuyer’s relationship with debt. When prices were going up, and nobody thought they were going to have to pay the debt off themselves, people borrowed all they could. Once prices stopped going up, and people were faced with paying off these enormous debts, the appetite for borrowing cooled significantly.
The difficult problem with affordable housing is how to provide it without making it unaffordable. Finance is not the answer. We all want affordable housing. There are numerous government programs designed to provide low-cost rental and ownership properties to people in all walks of life. Lenders, builders, realtors and buyers all benefit from affordable housing because affordability means an increase in transaction volumes and more money into the pockets of those dependant on the real estate market.
Mortgage interest rates are determined in an open market and are subject to the forces of supply and demand. These rates are the sum of three main components: riskless rate of return, risk premium, and inflation expectation. The Great Housing Bubble was characterized by historic lows in the federal funds rate, risk premiums and inflation expectations which resulted in the very low mortgage interest rates. These low mortgage interest rates allowed people to finance large sums of money, and these larger bids helped inflate the housing bubble.
When the lending industry developed exotic loan products, they touted them as “innovation,” and they sold these toxins far and wide. Since these loans achieved the highest default rates ever recorded, it is apparent the “innovations” of the bubble rally were not entirely successful. The cutting edge is sharp. Innovators often pay a heavy price for attempts at advancement. Sometimes these advances lead to quantum leaps in human knowledge and understanding. Sometimes the time, effort, and money are merely thrown into the abyss. The financial innovations of the Great Housing Bubble are of the latter category.
Much of the money homeowners borrowed fueled consumer spending and reinforced poor financial management techniques. It was common during the bubble rally for people to run up enormous credit card bills then refinance every year and pay them off. It is foolish enough to finance consumer spending, but it is even more foolish to pay for this spending over the 30-year term of a typical mortgage. The consumptive value fades quickly, but the debt endures for a very long time.
Mortgage Equity Withdrawal or MEW is the process of obtaining cash through refinancing residential real estate using the accumulated equity as collateral for the loan. This is a cultural pathology because it is not sustainable. Many people became addicted to using their houses as an ATM machine, and when prices fell, these people lost their homes in foreclosure.
A mortgage consultant is an independent agent, an intermediary between you the consumer and the mortgage lender. The mortgage consultant at Jumbo Mortgage Loan will shop the available lenders to find the mortgage product that offers the best combination of features, options and rates to suit your individual circumstances. The best part – depending on your credit picture – there is no charge to the consumer for the service. The mortgage consultant’s fee is normally paid by the lender.
Learn how others can help you help yourself on the road back to financial recovery.
Credit card debt can be an extreme burden but you can dig yourself out of debt.